


Only Forever

by liveyourstory



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fix-It, Marriage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-17
Updated: 2014-08-17
Packaged: 2018-02-13 12:53:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2151447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liveyourstory/pseuds/liveyourstory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Over the city noises from outside, the rumble of motor cars in the distance and shouts of children playing in the alley behind their building, Peggy could make out the even more familiar scrape of pencil against paper. Without opening her eyes, she murmured, ‘Surely you must get tired of drawing the same thing over and over?’</i>
</p>
<p>  <i>‘I could never get bored drawing you.’ He replied, the smile evident in his voice. ‘Especially not when I get your best angle.’ He added, swatting her backside, which was closest to him and covered only with the thin sheet.</i></p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Most days, Peggy loves her job, but not when it deprives her of lazy mornings with her husband.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Only Forever

**Author's Note:**

> Do you think I'll remember how you look when you smile?  
> Only forever,  
> and that's putting it mild
> 
> ~ Only Forever (Dean Martin)

The apartment was dark when Peggy finally got back, save for a single lamp in the living room. She'd half expected to find Steve still up, waiting for her even though she'd told him hundreds of times not to bother, but it looked like he'd actually listened to her for once. Either that or he'd simply admitted defeat and gone to bed before he could fall asleep in his armchair; it was very late, after all. Or rather, it was very _early_ , just not on the same day as the one when she'd actually left for work, when she'd headed out the door promptly at 07:30, as always, her lips still tingling from Steve's enthusiastic goodbye kiss.

The fact that that had been very close to twenty-four hours ago now was a thought she tried not to dwell on.

In the kitchen, a note had been left on the table. Peggy picked it up, reading it as she gulped down a glass of water. _Leftovers in the icebox. xx_ , Steve had scrawled, above a little cartoon of himself wearing a 'Kiss the Cook' apron. She smiled, amused to see that more effort had been put into the drawing than the actual note, which was only just legible. It was too late to eat a heavy meal, though, and the thought of bed easily won out over the distant twinge of hunger.

She left the glass in the sink, then tiptoed through to the bathroom, pausing to switch off the lamp on her way.

Steve didn't stir when she finally made it through to their bedroom. He was lying on his side, with his face pressed into the pillow and his arm wrapped around it like he thought it was going to scurry away in the middle of the night. They were in the middle of a heat wave, meaning the room was hot and stuffy even with the window open to encourage a non-existent breeze inside, so Peggy didn't bother changing into her nightdress. She undressed as quietly as she could, leaving her clothes in a pile on the floor to be tidied away when she woke up, then slipped under the thin sheet that half-covered Steve. She tried not to disturb him, but as soon as she lay down he shifted behind her, rolling closer and moving his arm from the pillow to drape across her waist, his palm warm against her stomach.

'Late.' He mumbled into her hair, awake enough to have registered her arrival but apparently not enough to be able to form a full sentence.

'Mm,' she agreed, yawning deeply. She patted his hand then rolled over to face him. His eyes were half open but unfocused and she could tell he was balancing on the precipice of sleep. Smiling fondly, she leant in to kiss him then settled back and closed her own eyes. 'Go back to sleep. I'll tell you about it in the morning.'

&&&

The sun was high in the sky by the time Peggy woke again, the light and heat from it filling the bedroom. She’d slept in later than intended, but couldn’t bring herself to care. She’d made the necessary phonecall the previous night to confirm completion of the work she’d become caught up in, so S.H.I.E.L.D. knew she’d been successful and, more importantly, survived. They could wait a bit longer for the official report.

Over the city noises from outside, the rumble of motor cars in the distance and shouts of children playing in the alley behind their building, Peggy could make out the even more familiar scrape of pencil against paper. Without opening her eyes, she murmured, ‘Surely you must get tired of drawing the same thing over and over?’

The mattress dipped as Steve shifted his weight. She couldn’t see him; not wanting to change the lighting, she hadn’t rolled over to speak to him, but she could tell he was sat behind her at the opposite end of the bed, his legs stretched out alongside her.

‘I could never get bored drawing you.’ He replied, the smile evident in his voice. ‘Especially not when I get your best angle.’ He added, swatting her backside, which was closest to him and covered only with the thin sheet.

‘Cheeky sod!’ Peggy rolled over, not minding in the least that the sheet became tangled at her waist, leaving her upper half bare, and kicked out, but Steve caught her foot and drew it into his lap, carefully setting his sketch book aside. Leaning back on her elbows, Peggy hummed in contentment as he began to massage the ball of her foot, easing the ache that lingered from having to run in her heels the previous afternoon.

‘You’re right, I’m sorry; that was wrong of me to say.’ Steve said, all big blue eyes and American earnestness. Peggy narrowed her eyes; she’d never been one to fall for his butter-wouldn’t-melt face. ‘This is obviously your best angle.’ He gave her a lascivious wink as he unashamedly let his gaze rake over her uncovered breasts.

Peggy tutted and poked his stomach with her toe, but made no move to cover up. She rather liked Steve’s admiring looks, especially since it had taken him so long to give them without blushing, even after their wedding.

Huffing a sigh, Peggy let herself fall back onto the bed with a thump, arching her back as she stretched and yawned, willing the last of her sleepiness to leave her. While the room was still almost unbearably hot, she found that she was comfortable and unwilling to get up, especially since she had to go to HQ, on what should be her day off, no less, to type up her report. ‘What’s the time, love?’ She asked, pulling her foot out of Steve’s grasp and laying the other on his thigh, nudging his hand until he relented and took up the massage again.

‘Just after one.’ He replied. ‘S.H.I.E.L.D. called a couple hours ago but I told them you’d be in touch this afternoon. I didn’t want to wake you.’

‘Thank you.’ Peggy smiled up at the ceiling, thinking yet again how lucky she was to have found Steve. ‘I suppose now that I am awake I should probably get going, though.’ The bed shook as Steve laughed, obviously seeing her unenthusiastic expression.

‘Do you have to?’ He asked, gripping her ankle and tugging her down the bed effortlessly, kneading his thumbs into her calf and drawing a pleased groan from her.

‘If you keep up with that I shan’t be going anywhere.’ Peggy said, wriggling to get more comfortable as Steve’s strong hands stroked up to her knee and back down to her ankle.

‘That was the plan.’ Steve grinned. Peggy laughed and trailed her fingertips down Steve’s leg, idly tracing circles on the bare skin where his ankles were crossed and his trouser leg had ridden up.

‘How nefarious.’

The two of them sat quietly for several minutes more, until Peggy realised that her mind wasn’t only wandering, she was close to drifting back to sleep. With an annoyed sigh, she hauled herself upright, gathering the sheet around her as she shuffled on her knees to the end of the bed. Draping one leg over Steve’s, she straddled him and closed the distance between them to kiss him. His hands were warm on her waist as he pulled her closer and tried to deepen the kiss, but Peggy resisted. She leant back and pressed her finger to his lips.

‘No, that’s even worse than what you were doing before.’ She told him, ignoring his innocent look as he kissed her fingertip. ‘I don’t want to, but I really must go into headquarters. I’ll try to keep it to a couple of hours; I’ll be back before you know it.’

‘And we can continue where we left off.’ Steve replied, giving in graciously. Peggy threw up silent thanks that he wasn’t the needy type; it would be tiresome feeling like she had to justify her difficult work hours, but luckily Steve had remained involved with the SSR’s sub-organisation as well and was often in the same position. ‘Do you have time for breakfast before you leave?’

‘If there isn’t at least a cup of tea waiting for me after I’ve washed I shall think you very poorly trained.’ She said with an arched eyebrow.

‘There’ll be a whole pot.’ Steve said. ‘You can have a cup here and put the rest in a flask to take with you.’

‘I like how you think, Captain.’

&&&

Less than forty minutes later Peggy was in the kitchen: dressed, hair pinned back, and make up perfect (bar lipstick. She’d learnt the hard way that this should be the absolute last thing to be applied before leaving the apartment, unless she wanted to leave Steve wearing more of it than she was). As promised, a cup of tea sat waiting on the table with a much-used vacuum flask, a sandwich wrapped in wax paper, and an apple beside it. She downed the tea in a couple of big gulps, then placed the sandwich and fruit carefully into her briefcase.

Steve appeared in the doorway shrugging into his coat. ‘I’m going to spend some time at the nursing home,’ he said. ‘I’m sure they won’t say no to some extra help for a few hours. And I’ll get some groceries for dinner on my way back later, so you can just come straight home when you’ve finished your debriefing.’

‘Wonderful, thank you.’ Peggy tucked the flask under her arm and crossed the room to tug him down to her height by his collar. She smiled against his lips as he kissed her, slowly and sweetly, then stepped back so he could straighten his clothes again. ‘Alright, I’m off. I’ll see you this evening. I love you.’

‘Love you too.’ Steve stole one last kiss, then stepped aside so Peggy could get her coat. He watched her pause by the mirror on the wall so she could apply her lipstick. ‘Hey, Peg?’

She glanced sideways, her mouth frozen in a small ‘o’ as she swiped the lipstick along her bottom lip.

‘You will tell me what happened yesterday, right?’ His tone was light but serious, and Peggy turned to face him as she rubbed her lips together to smudge the colour.

‘Of course.’ She gave him a pointed look. ‘I would have told you about it when I woke up, but you distracted me.’

Steve laughed and shook his head. ‘Right, and that had nothing to do with the fact that you’re not a morning person.’

‘Technically, it wasn’t morning.’ Peggy replied primly, smiling when Steve only laughed harder.

‘The point is, you’re scary when you first wake up. Distraction is the best technique for survival.’

‘Hmph, and there was me thinking you were being a kind and caring husband.’

‘I wasn’t hearing any complaints.’ Steve pointed out.

Peggy picked up her briefcase and flask again. ‘Of course not. And if you promise to do it again tomorrow morning you won’t hear any complaints then either.’

‘I’ll bear that in mind.’ Steve replied, following her to the front door. He reached around her to pull it open for her and she smiled at him over her shoulder, then stepped out into the hall.

Turning to face him, she said quietly, in case there were neighbours about, ‘In all seriousness, I’m sorry if I worried you. I didn’t expect the mission to take quite so long, but I promise I’ll tell you every last boring detail over dinner.’

Steve ducked down and kissed her cheek, then stepped back. ‘I’ll look forward to it.’

‘I wouldn’t.’ Peggy said. ‘I wasn’t joking about the details being boring. The whole thing was actually rather dull, it just happened to take forever.’

‘You can just give me the highlights, then.’ Steve teased, and Peggy nodded.

‘Yes, that would probably be best. I don’t want you falling asleep on me.’

Steve raised his eyebrows. ‘Why, do you have something planned, Mrs. Rogers?’

‘Perhaps.’ Peggy smirked and finally turned to leave, waving over her shoulder. ‘You’ll find out tonight, won’t you?’

‘Now _that_ I’ll look forward to.’ Steve called after her as she jogged down the stairs, her laughter ringing in the air.


End file.
